Mike Ashley and Darsley Park – Unfit for Purpose

As disgraceful as the support for Rafa Benitez has been from Mike Ashley in this transfer window, promising him every penny the club earns and then ending the summer as the most profitable club in the Premier league is not the only concern for fans and the manager. Benitez has consistently raised the issue of outdated training facilities and underinvestment at the club academy since the day he arrived at Newcastle. This is an area that Mike Ashley should be on the same page as his manager on, to quote the owner from back in 2008 – “I want Newcastle to be able to create its own legends of the future to rival those of the past. This is a long-term plan. A long-term plan for the future of the club so that it can flourish”.

The lack of investment in Newcastle’s training facility at Darsley Park flies in the face of any such desire and is a slap in the face to a great manager like Benitez famed for bringing on talent.
It was 2003 when Newcastle opened their current facility, over 15 years ago it was state of the art, but these days modern facilities are a miles ahead of what was built prior to Ashley buying the club, and Ashley knows it. That’s why he announced an upgrade in 2013. As Joe Kinnear, Director of Football at the time (pause for thought) said announcing the upgrade – “Top players and top teams need top training and medical facilities. Our current training ground has served the Club very well but the new complex will give us all of the ingredients that we need to continue maintaining and enhancing the performance of elite footballers. It will also be an added attraction when we are looking to recruit players.”

Nothing happened after the announcement, the planning permission that was granted has expired 5 years later.

There have been some improvements that Benitez has been able to push through. There has been internal restructuring, some new gym equipment and a big thing for the manager was resurfacing the indoor artificial pitch. The new 4G surface reduces the chances of injuries, but Benitez was keen to state that this is not anything extravagant, but rather something those of us that play five-a-side already had better than the club – “If our supporters play in their five-a-side teams perhaps, then they will know themselves the difference between a poor quality artificial pitch and a 4G pitch”. The same surface was provided for the academy.

Rafa still wants Newcastle to do more to improve on what was a recognised problem back in 2013.

Almost every other Premierleague club has invested heavily in keeping their training facilities right up to date, if they’ve not upgraded their facilities they have plans in place to do so:

Protests against the owner are not just about disappointing transfer windows. They are about chronic under-investment across the entire club. The transfer window might be closed but Mike Ashley still has an opportunity to invest where Rafa has asked. Last week, the club released a statement that included the following rally cry – “Now, it’s about all of us pulling in the same direction, for the good of the club”. If that is to have any credence whatsoever it’s time for Mike Ashley and Justin Barnes to start pulling in the same direction as Rafa Benitez and invest the club’s money where he wants.

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